Time switch



M. H. RODRIG UEIS April 23, 1929.

TIME SWITCH Filed Oct. 27, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet April 1929. v M. H.RODRHGUES 1,710,111

TIME SWITCH Filed Oct. 27, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1N VE N TUE Wan/054 f2.Ron/H6055 AUYE ' presence of an operator.

Patented Apr. 23, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MANUEL H. BODRIGUES, OF HONOLULU, TERRITORY OF HAWAII, ASSIGNOB OF ONEHALF TO JOHN J. PAVAO, OF HONOLULU, TERRITORY OF HAWAII.

' TIME SWITCH.

Application filed Getober 27, 1924. Serial No. 740,197.

The present invention relates to improvements in electric alarm clocks,and its principal object is to provide means allow ng an alarm clock toclose an electric circuit at a predetermined time, to open the electr1ccircuit at a predetermined later time, and to intermittently close andopen the c1rcu1t during the interval. My 1nvent1on mlght be Iparticularly used, for instance, where it is desired to intermittentlylight a show window or an advertising scheme fora certain length of timewithout necessitating the If it is desired to have the lights goingintermittentl in a show window between 9 and 12 1n t -e evening, and theoperator leaves the store at 5 oclock, he may set the alarm clock toclose the circuit at 9 and to open the circuit at 12 while the workingmechanism of the alarm clock will automatically etlect the intermittentopening and closing of the cir cuit during the hours from 9 to 12. MyHIVGH'UOII constitutes an improvement on the device described by me inmy copending application Serial N 0. 692,141, filed February 11th, 1924,and contemplates to utilize two alarm releases in an ordinary alarmcloclr for etfecting the closing and opening of the circuit at thepredetermined times and to utilize the escapement control of the clockmechanism for the intermittent open ng and closing of the circuit.Further ob ects and advantages of my device will appear thespecification proceeds. The preferred Ior of the invention isillustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 shows a frontview of my alarm device with a box enclosing the same.

Figure 2 a rear View of the same dev ce.

Figure 3 a front view of the operating mechanism of the alarm device,the d al and the hands of the clock mechanism being removed.

Figure 4 a vertical section through the box illustrating the generalwiring scheme.

Figure 5 an end view ofthe box.

Figure 6 a diagrammatic illustration of the operation and coaction ofthe diflierent units, and

Figure 7 an end VIGW of the mechanism shown in Figure 3.

While I have shown only the preferred form of the invention, it shouldbe understood that modifications may be made within the scope of theclaim hereto attached to be viewed therethrough and the rear wall ispreferably provided with a door 8 allowmg of access to the rear of theworking mechanism for setting the various adjustable elements.

The mechanism, as such, includes the well known conventional elements ofthe ordinary alarm clock which may be briefly described as follows:

A spring operated wheel 9 imparts rotary motion to the shaft 11 on whichthe minute hand 12 is mounted. A smaller pinion 13 drives a larger gearwheel 14 mounted coaxially with a pinion 16 which latter drives the gearwheel 17 formed integral with a sleeve 18 to which latter the hour hand19 is secured so that the latter is revolved in the well known speedratio relative to the minute hand. The pinion 16 also revolves the twogear wheels 20 and 21, rotatable on the two shafts 22 and 23. The lattershafts have hands 24 mounted thereon and have also small lateralprojections 26 extending therefrom which latter normally ride on the endfaces of sleeves 27 formed integral with the gear wheels 20 and 21respectively and thereby push the latter gear wheels inwardly againstthe springs 28 and 29 until the gear wheels have turned sufiiciently farto bring a notch 31 into registry with the projcctions 28 whereupon thegear wheels are allowed to jump forward under the action of the spring28 or 29 respectively. The two springs which are fastened at one end tothe front plate 32 of the clock mechanism, as shown at 33, are bent attheir extreme ends 34 to presentlips 36 projecting over one of the edgesof the plate 32, which latter lips are used for the operation of mymovable contacts as will appear later in the description.

The main shaft 11 carrying the minute hand 19 has a large gear wheel 37fixed thereto which latter drives through a pinion 38, a shaft 39 whichlatter transmits rotary motion through a gear Wheel 41 and a pinion 42to a shaft 43. The latter has a gear wheel 44 mounted thereon drivingthe cscapement wheel 46 which latter is well known in the art and,therefore, not further illustrated. The onl portion of the mechanismconstituting t e escapement control that I utilize for the purpose of myinvention, is the shaft 39 on which I mount a toothed wheel 47 for thepurpose of operating a lever mechanism for effecting the intermittentopening and closing of my circuit.

All the mechanism thus far described is substantially known in the artand not claimed in the present invention.

The general object of my invention being to cause the clock mechanism toopen and close an electric circuit in accordance with predeterminedrules, the main portion of my improvement is the switch operated by theclock mechanism. For this purpose I provide an extension plate 48 ofinsulating material secured to the rear plate of my clock mechanism inany suitable manner as by strips 49 and mounted thereon a stationarycontact 51 having a tongue 52 extending therefrom, and having va secondplate 53 mounted thereon with freedom of sliding adjustment which latterplate is formed with a tongue 54 so that the two tongues 52 and 54 formmy two stationary contacts and are electrically connected with oneanother. I further provide two movable contacts 56 and 57, the formerbeing secured to the insulat-ing block 58 and the latter to theinsulating block 59, the two contacts being connected to the wires 61and 62 respectively, which latter form part of a circuit which maycontain a suitable source of electrical energy and any suitable alarmdevice. When the contact 56 touches the contact 54 and the contact 57touches the contact 52 the circuit is closed, but, when either of thesecontacts become disengaged, the circuit is open.

The insulating block 58 is pivoted between the two plates constitutingthe main frame of the clock mechanism, as shown at 63, and is normallyacted on by the spring 64 to disengage the contact 56 from the contact54, but the two contacts may be manually engaged by operating a pin 66extending through a slot 67 in the insulating plate 48 and may be heldin the switch closing position by the lip 36 projecting over the edge ofthe front plate and engaging a projection 68 extending from theinsulating block 58. In this connection, it should be remembered thatthe lip 36 extends into an operative position for holding the projection68 only so long as the spring 29 is forced against the front plate 32but becomes free when the spring jumps forward'due to the fact that thenotch 31 has reached the projection 26.

The insulating block 59 is ivoted, as shown-at 69, and a coil spring 71tends to force the contact 57 upon the contact 52. These two contactsmay, however, be manually separated by the operation of the slide 72secured to a pin 73 riding in a slot 74 in the late 48. A nut 76threaded on the pin 73 olds the latter and the slide in any desiredposition. One end of the slide is formed with a projection 77 adapted toengage with the reduced end 78 of the insulating block 59 for pushingthe latter sideways whereby the contact 57 is separated from the contact52 and whereby the projection 79 rising from the insulating block isbrought into operative relation to the lip 36 of the spring 28 so thatthe insulating block is locked in said position by the lip 36 as long asthe spring 28 is pressed against the front plate by the alarm releasemechanism. It will thus be seen that the contact 56 has a tendency toseparate from the contact 54, but may be manually engaged with the sameand locked in such engagement by the lip 36 on the spring 29 until suchtime as the release mechanism for the latter spring becomes active whilethe contact 57 normally tends to engage with the contact 52 but may bemanually separated therefrom and locked in a separating position by thelip 36 of the spring 28 until such time as the release mechanism for thelatter spring becomes active.

Means are thus provided allowing an operator to set the alarm clock toclose the circuit at a predetermined time and to also open it at apredetermined later time, but it is further proposed to provide meansfor allowing the clock mechanism to intermittently operate one of themovable contacts for intermittently opening and closing the circuitduring the interval. For this purpose I utilize the escapement controlof the clock mechanism and particularly the toothed wheel 47 which bearson the free end of a bar 81 pivoted at its other end, as shown at 82,and connected through a link 83 with one arm 84 of a bell crank lever 86pivotally supported as at 87. The other arm 88 of a bell crank leveroperates a rod 89 having a stop 91 mounted thereon with freedom ofadjustment and the latter bears on the reduced end 78 of the insulatingblock 59, a strong spring 92 operating on the arm 88 to separate thecontact 57 from the contact 52. It should be noted that the spring 92 isstronger than the spring 71 tending to effect engagement between thecontacts 52 and 57 while the spring 92 tends to separate the contact 57from the contact 52. The teeth on the wheel 47 in-' termittently bearupon a slanting face 93 of the bar 81 for rocking the bell crank lever86 through the link 83 and for pulling the rod 89 to the left, as viewedin Figure 2 so as to free the insulating. block 59 from the stop 91 onthe rod and to allow the spring 71 to force the contact 57 upon thecontact 52.

The feature of intermittent opening and closing of the circuit may beeliminated by means of the handle 94 pivoted as at 96 and provided witha pin 97 bearing against the inner face of the arm 88 of thebell cranklever for pushing the latter arm upwardly, friction being relied uponfor holding the handle 94 in the position desired by the operator. Itwill be readily seen that when t 1e handle 94 is pushed upwardly, thepin 9? pushes the arm 88 to the left, as viewed in Figure 2 and therebyfrees the block 59 from the stop 91 altogether,

The operation of my device is as follows:

According to the clock shown in Figure 1, it is 8 oclock. The operatordesires to have the light system start at 9 oclock and stop at 12. Forthis purpose, he first sets the upper alarm handle 24 at 8 oclock whichmeans that the spring 29 is released. Next he engages the contact 56with the contact 54 by manipulating the pin 66, and he looks thecontacts in engagement by moving the handle of the upper alarm dial to12 oclock, that is, to the time at which he wants the operation to stop.Turning the handle 24 causes the spring 29 to be pressed against thefront plate and causes the lip 36 extending from the said s ring toengage with the projection 68 on t e insulating block 58. Next heproceeds in a similar manner with the lower movable contact, firstsetting the lower alarm handle 24 at- 8 oclock so as to free the spring28. He then moves the slide 72 t0 the extreme right, as viewed in Figure3, whereby the contact 57 is separated from the contact 52 and wherebythe projection 79 on the insulating block 59 is brought into operativerelation to the lip 36 of the spring 28 so that the two may interlock assoon as the spring 28 is forced upon the front plate by turning the hand24 of the lower alarm to 9 oclock, that is, to the time at which theoperator wishes the operations to begin.

If the operator desires steady operation during the three hours, heworks the handle 94- to push the arm 88 of the bell crank lever 86 tothe left, as viewed in Figures 3, but if he wishes the operation to beintermittent, that is, if he wishes the light to go on and oii' atintervals, he pushes the handle 94 downwardly so as to allow the spring92 to become active and to push the rod 89 to the right, whereby thecontact 57 is again separated from the contact 52 while the teeth on thewheel 47 intermittenly overcome the action of the spring 92 and free theinsulator 59 from the stop 91 thereby allowing the spring 71 totemporarily force the contact 57 upon the contact 52. A small light 95may be provided to light up the interior of the box.

I claim:

In a device of the type described, a switch having a movable contact, anescapement de vice for a clock mechanism, a pivoted lever, a linkextending from one end of the lever and engaging said contact forpushing the same in circuit-opening position and for releasing the same,an operative connection between the escapement and the other end of thelever for intermittently operating said pivoted lever, and manuallyoperated means for rendering the bell crank lever inactive.

MANUEL H. RODRIGUES.

